Gourmet (November 2009)
We absolutely loved our spatchcocked turkey! The skin was crispy, the meat was moist and flavorful.
But let's be honest. For many people, the Thanksgiving turkey is nothing more than a delivery vehicle for gravy.
We wanted a great, classic gravy to go with our turkey, and we love the one we found, this Cream Gravy from Gourmet.
We made our turkey giblet stock the day before preparing the bird. Don't be put off by the number of ingredients. Making the stock yourself is really simple, and it gives the gravy a really special depth of flavors.
Making this gravy was easy, too. We didn't have many pan juices from our turkey, so we didn't really bother with straining them and reserving the fat (so we essentially skipped the first paragraph in the recipe below). We jumped right in with the 5 tablespoons of butter, melted it and whisked in the flour. Then we stirred in the stock, cream and salt and pepper.
We amped up the amount of pepper here, and we're glad we did. We ended up with a rich, luxurious, creamy gravy -- with enough of a peppery kick to really add something nice to the Thanksgiving plate.
More Thanksgiving Suggestions From The Bitten Word >>
Cream Gravy
Gourmet (November 2009)
INGREDIENTS
• About 4 cups hot turkey giblet stock
• Melted unsalted butter if necessary
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
Make gravy while turkey rests:
Strain pan juices through a fine-mesh sieve into 2-quart measure and skim off fat (or use a fat separator), reserving fat. Straddle roasting pan across 2 burners, then add remaining 1 1/2 cups water and deglaze pan by boiling over high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, 1 minute. Strain through sieve into measuring cup containing pan juices. Add enough turkey giblet stock to pan juices to bring total to 5 cups.
Put 5 tablespoons reserved fat (if there is less, add melted butter) in a 4-quart heavy saucepan and whisk in flour. Cook roux over medium heat, whisking, 3 minutes. Add stock mixture in a fast stream, whisking constantly, then add cream, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper. Bring to a boil, whisking, then stir in any turkey juices from platter and simmer 5 minutes.
Serve turkey with gravy.
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